Temporal Cascades in Prefontal Cortex: Review and Evidence

Though anatomically heterogenous, the human prefrontal cortex seems to perform a rather general function: it actively maintains context representations to guide and control behavior. What, then, is the reason for the anatomical diversity within this region of the brain?

Some theories suggest that prefrontal cortex (PFC) is organized to represent increasingly protracted contexts. According to this "temporal cascade" model, the most posterior regions of PFC are responsible for maintaining only the most current contextual information (e.g., "the doorbell rang") whereas progressively more anterior regions of PFC are responsible for more temporally delayed context information (e.g., "you're at your friend's house").

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